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Saturday, December 28, 2013

Another reason I am not native!

I know, sadness, right. The more and more I delve into my Aboriginal heritage the more I find the less I am. Case in point: A 1977 study in Gastroenterology found "that 100 percent of Natives tested were lactose intolerant,
which is a food intolerance to the sugar lactose that is found in milk
products."

Discovering that 100% of natives from the study were lactose intolerant
makes me doubt my nativeness even more. How can this be? I love cheese. I can eat cheese all day all day and be FINE, I live for Wine and Cheese. I'm not a big fan of milk alone, but it's not because it makes me feel sick, I just don't prefer it as a drink of choice. Does this lack of intolerance make me less indian because I lack it? Or does it make me a hardier indian because I have adapted to the Urban landscape.

Discovering this makes me even less indian than my "native" friend who shared these facts with me. Now she is up +2 on the Indian score board because not only is she lactose intolerant, but she just had her gall bladder removed, another big time native ailment that I was unaware of. Because as I was told "all natives are lactose intolerant", and I thought they were all just diabetics and alcoholics.

I've looked for factual data from the CDC or other health organizations to help strengthen my nativeness against these 2 new found stats, but can't find anything. Most things listed are the high levels of Alcoholism, teen pregnancies, Obesity, mental health, heart disease, even Tuberculosis. So there is hope for me! "In 2008, its incidence was still five times higher for Native Americans and Alaska Natives than for non-Hispanic whites."